The present invention relates to a system for preventing the unauthorized copying of compact discs containing prerecorded data. Specifically, a digital recording system is described which includes premastering software for preventing the recording of copyrighted information on a compact disc. Compact disc (CD) recorders along with user friendly premastering software are available for making copies of CD ROMS. This includes both digital data representing computer software stored on a compact disc, as well as audio sound recordings which are digitally recorded on a compact disc.
These systems may include a SCSI bus arrangement connected to multiple peripheral devices, one of which can read a compact disc, and another of which can write or create a compact disc from the read data. The SCSI bus peripherals are under control of a standard personal computer through a SCSI bus interface.
The availability of such hardware renders possible the mass infringement of copyrighted works. Recording technology has progressed to the point where in a time frame of between 20 and 40 minutes a complete compact disc could be reproduced from another prerecorded disc. In anticipation of such wide scale copyright infringement, the producers of sound recordings, as well as computer software, which are stored in a digital format on a compact disc have included for each track which is the subject of copyright protection, a copyright notice in the form of a flag contained within a control field of the track. It is contemplated that legitimate manufacturers of recording equipment will include a feature which will inhibit the recording of any track being read which contains the copyright notice.
The present invention represents one approach for controlling such unauthorized copying of a copyrighted work contained in a track of a CD.